Worship Times

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 10, 2024

CONTACT: BILL MULLIGAN billmulligan@murray-ky.net or 270-519-0038

 

BRUCE DOBYNS TO SPEAK ON

THE CAMPBELL STONE MOVEMENT’S INFLUENCE ON CHURCHES IN WESTERN KENTUCKY  

JUNE 22, 2024

 

The Jackson Purchase Historical Society will meet on Saturday June 22nd in the Fellowship Hall (enter on the backside of the building) of The First Christian Church of Murray, 111 N. Fifth St., Murray, Kentucky. beginning at 10:30 am. The program will be presented by the Rev. Dr. Bruce W. Dobyns who will share a short History of the Campbell Stone, or Restoration Movement in America, that gave birth to the A Capella Churches of Christ, the Christian Churches and Church of Christ, and the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). All of which have played an important role in the history of the Jackson Purchase and western Kentucky generally. He is a retired minister from the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) having last served at the First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Mayfield, Kentucky.

 

“I am delighted that Bruce is able to share the history of the churches as part of our program. A few years a go we focused on the Baptists and see this as part of a series on the religious life of Purchase residents,” said JPHS president  Bill Mulligan. 

 

If you are unable to attend and want to join us via Zoom go to the URL to register and once you do that you will receivde an email to join. 

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwkcOigrD0qGNJ2MnQeETbzz7yWUcmlaTH-

 

The Campbell Stone Movement, or Restoration Movement, Theology developed on the American frontier in the mid-18th century. The goal of the founders was the “restoration” the original New Testament principles for the faith and the church.  While these churches may look a bit like Catholics in having communion at least once a week, they are Protestant. While these churches may look like Baptists in their polity and immersion baptism, they are not. While these churches have free worship like the Methodists they don’t fit there either. And, while they may look like the United Church of Christ in which each church extends a call to their minister, they fit there either. They form a distinction witness to the New Testament. While these three branches of the faith share common roots their theology runs the full spectrum from liberal to conservative further complicating an easy understanding.

 

In 1958, a group of historians met in Murray, Kentucky led by faculty from Murray State University and University of Tennessee-Martin and formed the Jackson Purchase Historical Society to promote interest, study, and preservation of the regional history of the territory encompassed in the Treaty of Tuscaloosa, known as the Jackson Purchase. The society holds several meetings each year with a speaker on Jackson Purchase history and publishes an award-winning journal on regional history. Members include a wide range of people who simply share a love of history and a love of the Jackson Purchase area.

 

 

Articles are welcome for future issues of the JPHS Journal and can be sent to the editor at billmulligan@muray-ky.net  The editor also welcomes inquiries about topics for articles, books for review, or offers to review a book. Copies of the Journal are available from the Jackson Purchase Historical Society, PO Box 531, Murray, KY 42071. The cost is $15.90 including postage and sales tax. Anyone interested in Jackson Purchase history is welcome to join the JPHS. Information about membership and future programs is available on the society’s website: http://jacksonpurchasehistoricalsociety.org/.  Free electronic access to back issues of the Journal through 2021 is also available through the Society’s website.